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The policy was, by argument and persuasion, to secure a unanimous ratification, if possible, and this policy fortunately proved successful.

It has been held that if Rhode Island and North Carolina had persisted in their first refusal to ratify, they would have become foreign nations. Practically this is an impossible view. Those States belonged to the Union that was formed in 1775; they had participated in the war of independence; the public debt was in part their burden; they held important territorial positions in the dominion surrendered by Great Britain in 1783. These facts precluded their being permitted to set up for themselves as independent nations. The logic of events compelled them to share the fortunes of their sister States. Congress began to give attention to these States soon after the Houses were organized in 1789. Ships belonging to their citizens were exempted from paying the duties levied on foreign ships, and Rhode Island asked for such an exemption. This was an implied acknowledgment on her part, as well as an assertion on the part of Congress, that Rhode Island was still one of the United States. In May, 1790, the Senate passed a bill forbidding commercial intercourse between that State and other States, and calling upon her for her share of the expenses of the war; the House delayed action, to see what the State convention that had been called would do. Had it been necessary, compulsion would no doubt have been ultimately employed against Rhode Island and North Carolina. Happily, their ratifications made this unnecessary.

CHAPTER XLVII.

THE BILL OF RIGHTS.

AMENDMENTS I.-X.

The several propositions relating to amending the Constitution before it should go into operation, have been stated in Chapter X. Also the plan adopted by its friends in Massachusetts, and in some other States, for effecting its ratification, which pledged them to favor amendments deemed necessary when the time came.

623. Ten Amendments Made.—When Congress, at its first session, took up the subject, it was found that Massachusetts had proposed 9 amendments, South Carolina 4, North Carolina 26, Virginia 20, New York 32, and New Hampshire 12; that minorities of the Pennsylvania and Maryland conventions had proposed 14 and 28 respectively; that Virginia had proposed a bill of rights containing 20 articles, and New York one of 24,-the whole making a total of 189 items. Many of them were repetitions, but there was still a large number of independent propositions. Twelve amendments, most of them selected from this mass, received a two-thirds vote of each House, and were sent to the State Legislatures for their action. Ten of the twelve received the required number of ratifications, and were declared to be in force, December 15, 1791.

Article I.-Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

624. No State Church, Etc.-Congress has nothing whatever to do with churches or with religion as such. An absolute separation of Church and State is one of the char

acteristic features of our Constitution. Then freedom of speech and of the press is another characteristic feature. It is to be observed, however, that these phrases are of necessity general and indefinite. Whether one has a right to utter his thoughts, depends on times and places, as well as on the thoughts themselves. The freedom of the platform or market-place cannot be tolerated in a garrison or camp. Words that are harmless or beneficial in time of peace, may be injurious in time of war. Mr. Hamilton said the liberty of the press could not be regulated by phrases or declarations, but "must depend altogether on public opinion, and on the general spirit of the people and of the government." The right to ask that grievances be redressed, or the right of petition as it is called, is found in the old English charters; the Colonists brought it with them from the old home; their descendants put it in the first State constitutions, and naturally desired to see it incorporated in the National Constitution.

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624 a. Sedition Law.-This law enacted in 1798 forbade, under the penalty of a fine of not more than $2,000 and imprisonment of not more than two years, the publication or printing of any false, scandalous, and malicious writings of any sort against the Government of the United States, either House of Congress, or the President, with intent to defame them, or to bring them into contempt, or to stir up seditions, or to encourage unlawful combinations against the Government, etc. It was strongly opposed at the time as an abridgment of the liberty of speech and of the press, and it expired by limitation in 1801.

Article II. A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

625. Right to Bear Arms.-Despotic rulers have generally been unfriendly to a citizen soldiery, rather preferring to rely upon regular troops. The friends of liberty, on the other hand, have commonly been unfriendly to large standing armies, and finally to a citizen soldiery. One of the charges made against the King in the Declaration of Inde

1 The Federalist, No. 84.

pendence was, that he had quartered large bodies of armed troops among the people. To deny the people the right of bearing arms, or even of having them in their possession, is one of the steps commonly taken by rulers seeking to establish or maintain arbitrary government. This Article throws the safeguard of the Constitution around the militia of the States.

Article III. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

626. No Billeting of Soldiers.-The objects of billeting soldiers upon the people, as it was formerly called in England, were to compel those in whose houses they were billeted to support them, and at the same time to overawe and intimidate them and their neighbors.

Article IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

627. Freedom from Searches, Etc.- Protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the English people had, through great effort and sacrifice, extorted from royal power. The maxim, "every man's house is his castle," was thoroughly grounded in the English constitution. The American Colonists brought this immunity with them from the Mother Country; they cherished and protected it until the Revolutionary period, when they incorporated it in their State constitutions, and naturally desired to see it placed in the National Constitution.

[Articles V., VI., VII., and VIII. have been discussed in the chapters relating to the Judicial department.]

Article IX.-The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

628. The Enumeration of Rights.-The Constitution and Amendments expressly enumerate certain rights

as reserved or retained by the people. Amendments I., II., III., and IV. are examples. The force of this Article is, that the particular enumeration of such rights shall not in any way be construed as meaning that other rights not so enumerated, are surrendered or in any way impaired.

Article X.-The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

629. Powers Not Delegated. As shown in Chaps. XII. and XXV., this Article is a formal statement of the theory on which the National Constitution was framed, viz., a government of delegated powers. When it was under consideration in the House of Representatives, two motions were made to insert the word "expressly " before delegated, but both failed, showing conclusively that the House was unwilling to sanction the doctrine of express delegation, or to deny implied delegation.

630. Amendments I.-X. a Bill of Rights. - The foregoing amendments were proposed mainly with reference to the controversy about a bill of rights; they are a bill of rights de facto, although not so called. Some said at the time that they were of no value, since they secured rights never endangered. They satisfied, however, a popular demand, and several of them have proved practical restraints on the Federal Government. We are so little. familiar with the acts prohibited, as the abridgment of the freedom of speech, establishments of religion, the quartering of soldiers in private houses, etc., that we but poorly appreciate at what cost these immunities were originally obtained by our English ancestors. The men of 1789, who had themselves passed through a struggle with arbitrary power, had a more vivid conception of their value.

631. Application of the Amendments.-It has sometimes been contended that several of these amendments apply to the States as well as the Nation. For example, it has been said that the Fifth Amendment extends

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